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Four Seasons Politics

Only Hope declares support for Absher

Henderson County Four Seasons Politics

County budget cruises in a less turbulent climate

One year removed from budget deliberations dominated by rancorous debates over school construction and a 5-cent tax increase, the Henderson County Board of Commissioners took up a steady-as-she-goes budget recommendation and mostly endorsed the spending outline. The budget is underpinned by County Manager Steve Wyatt’s ability to enforce spending discipline and preserve a large fund balance even while guiding the board through one of the most ambitious capital building programs in county history. Unlike last year, most of the big decisions — including what to do with Hendersonville High School — have been made. The county’s total debt service climbs to $168 million in fiscal year 2019, when the county will be paying off debt for completed projects like the Health Sciences Center and new projects like Edneyville Elementary School, Hendersonville High School and the emergency services headquarters. Yet the county’s fund balance — at $45 million — remains so hefty that commissioners Bill Lapsley and Grady Hawkins have consistently argued for a property tax rollback.“I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary,” Commissioner Grady Hawkins said of the budget. “It looks like pretty much a continuation of some of the major projects we’ve been undertaking. One of the things I’d like to do is take a closer look at a year or two past this budget. There’s going to be a big peak for about three years where we have a significant increase in debt service and then it starts dropping off as some of the other projects we have are getting paid off.”Specifically, total debt principal and debt service (the amount the county allocates to pay back loans) peak in FY 2019, at $168.3 million and $9.7 million, and then start to taper down — to $153.5 million and $12.7 million in 2020, $140 million and $10,7 million in 2021 — until it reaches a low in 2026 of $80 million and $8.3 million, not counting any new debt the county takes on.Hawkins said on Tuesday the county is more than likely at the high-water mark of capital debt for the foreseeable future because it’s just about completed major school and emergency services construction.“I really don’t think at this point there are any other large capital projects coming on line,” Hawkins said.Besides new schools, the county has added ambulance stations in Crab Creek and Fletcher and authorized the new $13 million emergency services headquarters. A $20 million law enforcement training center has been postponed while Sheriff Charlie McDonald responds to commissioners’ order to come up with cost cuts.“We’ve not pulled the plug on it,” Hawkins said. “We directed the staff and the sheriff to at least look around and see if we could satisfy those training requirements at a little bit lower cost. I quite frankly don’t know where they’re at.”Although Hawkins said it’s possible the location and magnitude of the project could change, he pointed out that moving off the BRCC campus would mean buying property.“It’s on hold pending our request to the sheriff to find a way to cut the cost,” Lapsley said. “He begged us for more time and we told him take what time you need. It’s not a crisis situation. If it takes another six months then we want him to do that.” Asked whether McDonald had gone back to his initial idea for an outdoor range, Lapsley said, “I think he’s looking at all options.” Property tax rollback? Hawkins said he’d be willing to consider a property tax rollback, as he and Lapsley tried for last year. But another way to use extra revenue would be to sock it away for 2019 and 2020 when the debt service reaches $19.7 million.“Remember also that the $45 million fund balance is a little bit of a misleading number,” Hawkins said. “You really don’t have $45 when you take out some of the restricted money. There’s about $9 million in the bank that’s already called for and then there was $7 million that we used to balance the budget this year. … We’re looking at $10 million to balance it this year. I think that’s kind of a misunderstood factor in the fund balance.”Asked whether he plans again to push for a rollback of county property tax rate of 56½ cents per $100 valuation, Lapsley said “I’m not going to answer that question.” But, as he did in the fall of 2015 and again last spring, he made the case for sending money back to taxpayers instead of keeping it in the bank.“I don’t think we should make a decision for this coming year based on what may or may not happen 2-3 years from now,” he said. “We just need to look at it year to year. I think we need to adjust the tax rate each year. It should go up and down. I don’t think we should leave the tax rate at a specific level just because we expect to need it down the road. So the question is, as I said last year, how much should we have in the rainy day? How much is enough?” Budget highlights Among the highlights of Wyatt’s recommended budget:• The $134.9 million budget is $3.5 million bigger than the current budget, or 2.7 percent more.• The budget funds this year’s debt service at $16.6 million. Outstanding debt is from the Innovative High School, now under instruction at BRCC; refinanced bond issues from 2010, 2012 and 2013, the 2010 Apple Valley-NHHS renovations, 2008 Hillandale and Mills River elementary school construction projects, the jail, ambulances and the health sciences center.• Keeps the tax rate at 56½ cent, fifth lowest rate among 27 medium- to large-sized counties in North Carolina.• Fully funds requests made by BRCC and public schools administrators. The county allocation for public schools is $26.9 million for operating costs, plus $1 million for repairing and preserving the Stillwell building plus school construction debt service of $36 million — overall a 6.3 percent increase. The BRCC allocation of $5.7 million is up 5.5 percent from the current year.• The tax base of $13.23 billion is the highest it’s been in any year since 2009.• Among the new expenses are $50,000 for spay and neuter programs.• All rural fire departments have requested the same tax rate as the current year. The Fire and Rescue Advisory Committee was scheduled to meet Tuesday to finalize the recommendation.   Read Story »

Henderson County Four Seasons Politics

Candidates, physician to speak at 'Missing Meadows' town hall

Two political candidates, a physician and an environmental activist are scheduled to speak when Hendersonville Indivisible holds its "Missing Mark Meadows" town hall at 10 a.m. Saturday at Jackson Park. Meadows has declined to hold a town hall meeting to hear constituents' concerns about health care and other topics. His office says that he is maintaining his usual practice of holding town hall meetings during the August recess of Congress. Speakers at Saturday's event include Dr. Brian P.Mitchell and local writer Leslie Boyd, who will speak about health care;Henderson County Young Dems Chair Amber White and environmentalist and educator Tate MacQueen, who will address environmental concerns; Matt Coffay, a Democratic candidate for the 11th Congressional District seat; and Norm Bossert, a candidate for state Senate District 48.For more information, contact coalition activist Gayle Kemp at 828-551-6169 or gaylekemp@gmail.com.   Read Story »

Henderson County Four Seasons Politics

Obamacare supporters plan 'die-in' at Meadows' office

Several county branches of the NAACP, Democratic activists and supporters of Obamacare will stage a die-in Thursday afternoon at the district headquarters of U.S. Rep. Mark Meadows in Hendersonville to urge him to oppose a Republican-drafted bill that would replace the Affordable Care Act. The protest comes as President Trump and Republican leaders in Congress are trying to round up enough votes to push through a bill that would repeal President Obama's signature legislation and replace it with the Republican-designed plan. The plan was teetering on the edge of having enough votes to pass on Wednesday. The Freedom Caucus, an influential group of 30-40 conservatives, had thrown its support behind a new version of health care reform after it helped sink an earlier plan. "The White House has announced a new rush-through repeal and replace plan for the Affordable Care Act that, if passed, will be disastrous for millions of Americans," Melinda Lowrance, coordinator of the NAACP in Western North Carolina, was expected to say in prepared remarks. Lowrance said that the Republican solution for insuring people with pre-existing conditions — funding high-risk pools that states would manage — would result in "unattainable premiums, effectively making them uninsured." She cites a study that says a woman with breast cancer, insured by the high-risk pool, would pay $45,000 extra. In the 11th Congressional District, she said, "Rep. Meadows is responsible for 280,500 non-elderly people with pre-existing conditions." The event was scheduled to feature nine people telling stories about how lack of health insurance killed them. "I ask you, how exactly does this travesty of a fake health insurance act help anyone except insurance companies anf the wealthy?" Lowrance asks.     Read Story »

Henderson County Four Seasons Politics

Towns side with city in water war

When they voted to seek legislation putting the Hendersonville’s water system under the control of state regulators, Henderson County commissioners were told that towns in Henderson County were afraid to bring up problems with the city water system for fear of higher rates.   Read Story »

Hendersonville Four Seasons Politics

'Not on my watch,' School Board member says of moving HHS out of city

Henderson County School Board members say county commissioners never talked to them about the idea of replacing Hendersonville High School with a new school campus outside the city limits.   Read Story »

Hendersonville Four Seasons Politics

LIGHTNING EDITORIAL: Legislature threatens public's right to know

The Hendersonville Lightning ran legal advertisements six times notifying the public of the sale of county-owned property on Sixth Avenue. Two bidders raised the price by $114,000 over three months’ time.   Read Story »

Hendersonville Four Seasons Politics

Lapsley praises water legislation as 'major step forward'

Henderson County Commissioner Bill Lapsley is praising proposed legislation filed by Rep. Chuck McGrady as a "major step forward" and an opportunity for local officials to resolve disputes over water rates and water system governance "over the next several months and keep Raleigh out of the picture."   Read Story »

Hendersonville Four Seasons Politics

Meadows gives Trump an A-plus

U.S. Rep. Mark Meadows says he judges President Trump not on what Congress has managed to pass — or not pass — in the first 82 days in office. Despite a goose egg so far on major legislation, Trump gets a glowing report card from the third-term Republican.   Read Story »

Hendersonville Four Seasons Politics

City feels 'kicked in the teeth' by McGrady water bill

Hendersonville City Council members said they were surprised that state Rep. Chuck McGrady filed a bill subjecting city water rates to state regulation just three days after a seemingly constructive two-county summit on utility issues. McGrady orchestrated a meeting Friday with officials from Henderson and Buncombe counties, Hendersonville and Asheville and other legislators from both counties, including state Sen. Chuck Edwards. Hendersonville officials came away from the meeting confident that McGrady would hold off moving ahead on any plan that would heavily regulate the city water system. McGrady filed a bill that bars cities from charging differential rates unless they get state approval. “We thought we had a good meeting Friday but obviously Chuck has escalated things,” said Hendersonville mayor pro tem Caraker, who represented the city along with Councilman Ron Stephens. “We’re going to work on bringing our inside and outside rates closer together. And we would welcome continuing the conversation with the county to get our water utility and our sewer utility more responsive according to the county’s criticism. “Chuck told us he was going to file a bill as a placeholder. He didn’t indicate it was going to be this bill, which is quite a surprise,” Caraker added. “We were perfectly willing to have the rate structure conversation but obviously Chuck thinks about it over the weekend and decides this was not quick enough.”   ‘Productive in tone and substance’ The City Council had been bracing for an attack in the form of legislation ever since the Board of Commissioners failed in an effort to force the city into ceding its water system to a countywide authority. McGrady’s bill bars cities from shifting water revenue to any other purpose. The proposed law would allow the expenditure of enterprise fund revenue for things like construction and new pipelines, repaying debt and paying into a city’s general fund for officials’ time devoted to utilities management and other shared costs such as vehicle maintenance. Cities could charge outside users a different rate only if the Local Government Commission, a state board that oversees local government finances, approved the rates after a public hearing. Instead of targeting Asheville specifically, as McGrady and the Legislature did two years ago with a bill invalidated by the state Supreme Court, or targeting Hendersonville, the bill applies statewide. “It does (apply to Hendersonville) to the extent that it’s a statewide bill,” McGrady said. “It applies to everybody.” Like Caraker, McGrady characterized Friday’s meeting as positive. “We had an all-parties meeting on Friday with representatives and managers and it was productive in tone and substance,” he said. McGrady said he hoped that the cities and counties would be able to “deal with some of the representation issues that Henderson County has put forward,” possibly through an interlocal agreement. His bill subjecting differential rates to Local Government Commission approval is lighter in oversight than a version that would have subjected the city’s utility system to control of the North Carolina Utilities Commission. That was an idea McGrady had raised after a Hendersonville officials rejected the idea of joining a countywide water authority. The commissioners endorsed the idea of Utilities Commission jurisdiction over the city’s rates and capital spending after negotiations with the city collapsed. “I call that a hard oversight,” McGrady said. “This is what I would call more soft oversight. There are cities across the state that are functionally bankrupt” and are extending water lines well beyond the city limits to capture water customers and balance their budgets. Because of that, he said, he found that the idea of restricting out-of-city rate differentials was gaining wide appeal. He characterized the water legislation as a work in progress, a draft that could effectively keeps the parties at the negotiating table. “I told the parties based on their good faith I will stand down on what I called the nuclear option,” forcing a water authority. “My bill does have a study provision in it. It’s not a heavy handed approach,” he said. “I think all the parties recognize I have plenty of other options if they can’t work it out themselves.” City Manager John Connet said the staff was still evaluating the consequences of McGrady’s bill. He said the city likes oversight by the Local Government Commission better than the Utilities Commission idea. “We know them. We work with them on a regular basis,” Connet said. As for the impact of the bill statewide, Connet said there’s no doubt that many cities have tuned in to a power struggle that started here. “There are a lot of cities and a lot of systems that charge a rate differential so obviously it’s going to affect them and I expect they’ll have questions,” he said. “I think our folks are willing to sit down and talk to the county. Exactly what the topics will be is yet to be determined. Obviously, we heard from Rep. McGrady that rate differential is something he’s concerned about.” McGrady and county officials are also pushing for some form of representation for outside users, Connet said. A constructive meeting on Friday did not mean, McGrady said, that the city has signed off on the bill. “They’re not going to be OK with the bill but they’re certainly OK directionally and I’ve also told them this is not a take it or leave it,” he said. “I’m quite open to input and willing to make changes that make sense. But I do intend to move the bill.”   ‘Kicked in the teeth with this’ Caraker and Miller say they’ve been stunned by the way the water war blew up. “They act like they’re the only people that have any moral authority and have the wellbeing of the people in the county in mind and that’s just not true,” Miller said of McGrady and the county commissioners. He said he could understand the county’s position if the city was not running its water system properly and communicating openly. “But as long as it’s going as nicely as it is now and we’re inclusive, why go in there and stir it up if it’s not a grudge or heavy-handed politics,” he said. “No one can come in and look at our books and say we are pulling money out of that enterprise fund and spending it inappropriately…. It’s a huge business and we are not good ol’ boy networking this.” Caraker agreed. “He’s going to be affecting the pocketbooks of a lot of people,” he said of McGrady’s proposal. “I don’t see that he’s making a lot of people statewide happy. It’s kind of astounding to me that all this is going on.” The city signaled that it was willing to work toward equal rates, involve the county in long-range planning and look at some form of representation to outside users. “And all of a sudden we get kicked in the teeth with this. We had such a good relationship with the county up until very recently, with the high school thing and this water situation. I feel like I just walked by Rod Serling and he pointed me to the ‘Twilight Zone.’ I took the lead in the meeting Friday because somebody had to come forward and come toward the middle. But forcing the issue in legislation is kind of nasty.”   Read Story »

Four Seasons Politics Archive